Frank
J. Oteri on the legacy of ACO's Orchestra Tech Initiative five years later

Despite the
claims of Wall Street stockbrokers or side-street fortune-tellers,
anyone's assessment of the future never quite turns out exactly as
prognosticated. Of course, statistically speaking, the world of so-called
"classical music" is almost always a safe bet, especially
when it comes to orchestral music. The orchestra has pretty much
stayed the same since the turn of the previous century.

But things are
changing even in this time tested neck of the woods, and most of this
has to do with new technologies. Who would have imagined that there'd
be a billion downloads onto things called iPods by now? And we know
that at least some of those downloads have been of classical music.
There's also the whole blogging phenomenon which has found its way
into all aspects of our lives. Now there are blogs that offer the
best writing about classical music out there. There are even
orchestras using PalmPilots to project program notes at concerts. But
of course the real innovation happens with new compositions.

It's been
nearly half a decade since the American Composers Orchestra presented Orchestra
Tech, a week of concerts and symposia charting the past,
present and future of melding the worlds of the orchestra and
electronically-generated sound. It's probably too soon to tell if the
majority of the speculations posited during Orchestra Tech
will ever come to fruition. But a good cross-section of what's been
going on since then will be featured on the ACO's next concert, "Tech
& Techno" at Zankel Hall, a multi-purpose venue
perfectly suited for such a program that was only a dream five years ago.

For some of
the composers on the program, composing music which merges the 19th
century technology of orchestral instruments with the 21st century
technology of the computer is nothing new. According to Edmund
Campion, the composer of Practice and a participant in 2001's
Orchestra Tech events, it's part of the zeitgeist of the past decade.
"I dont claim special credit for being hip to newer
technologies; it is the most travel-worn pathway of our time."

Campion
claims what he's doing here is not a whole lot different from what
composers have done throughout history. "But unlike Chopin and
his piano, the computer is not a defined instrument that one masters
over time. The computer is a set of patterns capable of morphing into
any number of instruments for any number of purposes. My subject
remains music, but my practice of allowing new technologies to alter
my 'Practice,' means my music will continue to change."

Of course, new
technologies have also been responsible for very clearly defined new
instruments such as Todd Reynolds's self-described iFiddle which will
be the solo instrument featured in the new iFiddle Concerto
composed by Neil Rolnick. And, since Reynolds admits that he only
"began calling my axe an iFiddle about a year or so ago,"
it really is a development that has occurred in the aftermath of
Orchestra Tech.

"I
realized, rather than playing an 'electric violin,' which already
has such a hefty history and definition, and which could actually be
called an "e-violin" if you follow today's parlance, i.e.
Electronic mail is email, I actually deal wholeheartedly with
information and data which is delivered through electricity, but is a
completely different animal both conceptually and physically."

For Rolnick,
however, it's ultimately "about making a real contemporary violin
concerto" and the newness of Reynolds' instrument is just a fact
of 21st century life. "While I'm aware that the technology is a
hook, it's all so much a part of the way that I work that it seems transparent.
Writing for technology is a piece of cake. Writing a concerto which
will sweep up the audience in an expressive display of virtuosity and
a dramatic interplay between the soloist and the ensemble for 20 minutes
is an exciting challenge."

For other composers,
the central role that technology plays in their music is a result of
their own immersion into various contemporary popular music styles all
of which are far more driven by technology that most contemporary classical
music. For Mason Bates, whose Omnivorous Furniture uses a laptop
and a drumpad, using these tools are a natural outgrowth of the work
he does as a DJ and electronica artist. "I still write with pencil and
worn-down eraser, with old-fashioned manuscript paper strewn across
an old desk," explains Bates. "But there's no doubt that the ever-encroaching
presence of my elaborate electronica setup - turntables, electronic
drum pad, studio monitors, audio interfaces, etc - has changed the way
I approach composition. The ability to create electronic beats out of
all manner of homemade sounds has exploded my palette in ways I never
imagined. But beyond adding an impossibly versatile (and virtual) section
to the orchestra, this new technology has also changed my approach to
musical time : DJing, after all, has given me an appreciation for large-scale
time and the expectation that it can create."

Similarly, Daniel
Bernard Roumain (DBR), whose Call Them All will involve the participation
of DJ Scientific, a turntablist-laptopist—did those words exist
five years ago?—bringing these sounds into an orchestral concert
is an extension of DBR's mission to bring the worlds hip-hop, rock,
funk and classical music closer together. Ironically, the one work on
the program that does not directly use technological means to create
the music, Justin Messina's Abandon, is inspired by early '90s
techno music and uses the orchestra to "create an acoustic counterpart"
to this purely electronic idiom.

Frank J.
Oteri is a New York-based composer
and the editor of the American Music Center's web magazine NewMusicBox.